COMMERCE – The No. 21 Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team rolled to a sweep of Western New Mexico University in the Field House on Friday evening. Set scores were 25-21,  25-20, and 25-17.
 
With the victory, the Lions are now 22-5 overall and 14-3 in the Lone Star Conference. Western New Mexico is now 9-16 overall and 5-11 in the LSC.
 
The Lions have one more home match in the regular season, and will welcome UT Permian Basin to the Field House for a 1 p.m. match Saturday. The Lions will celebrate the careers of the senior class prior to the match.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions out-hit WNMU by a .302 to .109 margin. The Mustangs did not record a kill until the 26^th point of the match.
- Shelley Chapron (Houston – St. Pius X) led the Lions with 13 kills and a .478 hitting percentage, also chipping in on three blocks.
- Celeste Vela (Guadalajara, Mexico) had another strong all-around performance with 12 kills on a .588 hitting percentage, 19 assists, and seven digs.
- Bina Njikam (Keller) had 10 kills on a .533 hitting percentage and also had two solo blocks.
- Savannah Rutledge (The Woodlands – College Park) was excellent in the back row, as the libero had 19 digs for an average of 6.67 digs per set. Riley Davidson (Commerce) also had 10 digs.
- Rylie Fuentes (Robinson) passed out 24 assists.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Neither team was able to establish an advantage early in the match, as the Lions' normally potent offense also gave away points. While kills were falling, A&M-Commerce gave away four points on errors and four on blocks before hitting their stride and pulling away. Njikam had two kills to put the Lions up 20-15 and a Vela kill at 22-15 gave the Lions their largest lead of the set. The Lions had set point at 24-17 before WNMU scored four straight points before a Mustang service error gave the Lions the first set. A&M-Commerce hit .186 in the set but stayed alive in multiple points with 24 digs, including a stunning 12 from Rutledge.
 
The Lion offense awoke in the second set, hitting .459 with two errors, only one of which was unforced. A&M-Commerce had a four-point lead at 13-9, then rattled off five straight points to go up by nine at 18-9. The Mustangs would cut that lead to as few as four in the late stages of the set, but a monster kill by Chapron emphatically ended the set.
 
A&M-Commerce scored four straight points to snap a 4-all tie early in the third set and would not see the lead shrink to fewer than three points the rest of the match. The lead was down to three points at 19-16 when the Lions came out of a timeout and scored six of the next seven points to close out the sweep. The hosts scored the final four points of the match with a Vela kill, a Daniela Santos (Caracas, Venezuela) ace, a Njikam solo block, and a Jaryn Wacker (Austin – Vista Ridge) hammer kill put the bow on the sweep. The Lions hit .278 in the set with Jaslyn Wacker (Austin – Vista Ridge) earning five kills in the frame.